wear your momentum
by callmesandy
Summary: "I don't want you to get the wrong idea, but you are someone I care about," Pepper said.


not mine, no profit garnered. Title and opening quote from Among The Other Mourners of Zion by Steve Subrizi. Setting from gwyo setting bingo. Thanks to a for saying it was a good idea.

* * *

 _but Ronny Foxy Baby said you got to wear your momentum  
the same way you wear your scars. _

Pepper just walked in the door, a tall glass of clean lines and stilettos. "We broke up," Tony said. "I should be crawling back to you begging forgiveness, I have it on my calendar. You know, after getting the Avengers back together somehow, and everything else I am suddenly too tired to list. Maybe I wasn't even going to crawl back to you for forgiveness, because I know I can't stop doing all those things I'm too tired to list."

Pepper frowned. "We had a fight, we didn't break up. Did you tell people we broke up? Oh God, that's what all those texts were about. We had a serious fight, I decided to take that vacation I have been owed for years and now I'm back and we did not break up. It was a break, for thinking. Apparently you also did a lot more than thinking," she said, waving at the bank of TVs and news about prison escapes, signed accords, other things. She picked up the tablet with the latest on Rhodey and frowned. "I don't want you to get the wrong idea, but you are someone I care about."

"I was sure we broke up. We were on a break that had no end I could foresee. You didn't come to the thing. You said you were upset about me and the suits. I haven't seen or heard from you in two months," Tony said. He had to pause, had they not broken up? No, he was sure. She marched off and slammed the door.

"Not the suits, Tony, God, I meant your self-destructive urges. I was actually pretty clear about it. I spelled it out. I didn't come to the thing because I was on vacation. I was on vacation thinking about us. I was thinking about how hard I find it watching you try to die. Did you sleep with someone else because you thought we were on a break?" This was angry Pepper, still beautiful, possibly more beautiful, but now definitely angry.

"I slept with no one, I'm not that guy, Pepper. I was pretty busy," Tony said. "I may have flirted with very young aunt. Possibly Nat. But there was no sex." He was still sitting in his thinking chair, Pepper was still standing there being very tall. He should tell her about his mother. He bet she already knew from someone. Maybe Steve had called her, insane as that sounded. Natasha could have called because of course she'd known, too. He sighed at that realization.

"I heard," Pepper said. "Even on vacation out in deep dark nature, I still heard."

"Where in nature were you? Do you even like nature? Nature doesn't have any amenities," Tony said.

"It was really green," Pepper said. "And yes, I missed the amenities. Mostly, I missed you."

"We didn't break up," Tony said.

"Have you ever had a serious argument with Rhodey? Did you two stop being friends while you were mad?" Pepper walked over and now was looming over Tony. She seemed to be wearing 11 inch stiletto heels, that couldn't be right.

"Rhodey and I haven't had sex in a long time, so your example is not helpful," Tony said. "We were, we apparently still are in love."

"Yes, we were always in love. Even when I was mad at you and you were completely wrong about why I was mad with you," Pepper said. "We didn't break up and it's not because we have sex and therefore our arguments are the end of our relationship. You get that, right?"

"No," Tony said. "Do you think I've been in a lot of relationships? You, Happy, Rhodey, that's it. I guess I could count my now sentient AI or Obadiah Stane, the guy who raised me after my parents died who tried to have me killed and you. Bruce who is god knows where. Steve, who's too busy hanging out with the guy who killed my mother."

"Stop listing people, Tony," Pepper said. She was no longer angry Pepper, she had moved to pitying Pepper. He could work with that.

"I made an honest mistake and thought we'd broken up. I see that now," Tony said.

"You really had crawling for forgiveness on your calendar?" Pepper smiled.

"I really did," he said. He got out of the chair and maneuvered Pepper so she was standing at Yao Ming height with her calves against the bed. Then he dropped to his knees. "This is like crawling," he said. He leaned his forehead against her obviously expensive skirt covered thighs. "Hi," he said.

"Hi," she said, smiling.

He pushed her skirt up, then held her waist and guided her down to lay on her back. He removed her shoes and put them aside. He kissed each of her ankles and then a line up to her knees and down again. Pepper hmmed happily.

He pushed her legs together and started rolling her spanx underwear off her body. He said, "I know there's a reason you wear this stuff when you have an incredible body that needs no shaping or holding in."

"I hate pantylines," Pepper said.

"But you still love me," Tony said, more than a little surprised. This was happiness and comfort. He would never get used to it. He ran his hands up and down her thighs and felt her warm tremblings in response. He spread her legs wider. Then he embarked on the joyous adventure of making Pepper come with his unworthy mouth and hands. He could do that, he loved doing that.

She said, "It's not the suits, Tony." Her voice was still steady. "I love you," she said, voice less steady, more breathy. "Things you do, your ways of, of, -" she stopped trying to talk. She writhed against him and then came, beautifully.

"My ways of?" He tried not to look smug. He got up on the bed with her, getting her skirt off by dragging it along her long legs. He undid her complicated shirt and got her pointless bra off. She was smiling up at him.

"Hey, I asked you a question, I want to be clear," Tony said. He caressed her breasts in soft circles. He licked her left nipple and she moaned softly.

"We weren't fighting about you being Iron Man. We were fighting about how sometimes, many times lately, you use the suits as a way to throw yourself off a cliff. To hurt yourself. Which you denied and pretended you didn't even understand what I was trying to say," Pepper said. Then she moaned again because he was still treating her breasts like the works of art they were.

He lay on his back. "Maybe I didn't understand," Tony said.

Pepper turned on her side and started undoing his pants. "Do you understand now?"

"What I want in my life is you. But I'm not going to stop throwing myself off cliffs, as you so eloquently put it. It's saving the world, a world worth saving. The little guy. I let myself, I made a mistake. I want to do something that matters. And a handjob, maybe. If you're asking what I want," Tony said.

She kissed him as she gave him a fantastic handjob. There was nothing Pepper Potts did not do extremely well.

She said, "You have me, dumbass. Even when we fight. Stop telling people we're on a break or broken up when we just had a fight. I trust you learned something from all of this." She paused and then looked him in the eye very seriously. "I made my decision in the green nature place where we barely had toilets. If having you means watching all this happen, then I think I can do this."

"I already knew you had great hands," Tony said.

"You know what I meant by this," Pepper said.

"We both know me well enough to know I'm not going to pass up a cheap joke," Tony said. "So, yes, I've grown, I've learned, I've hugged. I'm so thrilled to learn I still have a girlfriend I can hug and have sex with."

"Did you think I would just leave all my stuff in our houses?"

"Yeah, that was weird," Tony said.

"Or a sign that we were fighting and not broken up. Why would I let you have all my shoes and suits and make up?"

"I would have kept the La Mer cream, that's a miracle worker there," Tony said.

"Exactly," Pepper said. "Why would I let you have that? If, If we ever break up, I'm taking my stuff. And I'm taking the penthouse in Paris," Pepper said.

"I would let you have everything you wanted, even the suit off my back. It would look better on you anyway," Tony said.

"No, it wouldn't," Pepper said. "Do you realize all your suits are tailored specifically to you?"

"I still think you'd look great in my suit," Tony said.

"You're just picturing me naked, wearing your blazer and a tie," Pepper said.

"I am now," he said. "I'm sorry I thought we broke up. Or were on a break."

"And told everyone we were on a break so I would get five million texts from everyone we know telling me I finally made a smart decision," Pepper said.

"All of them said that?"

"Yup," Pepper said. "Are you actually surprised?"

"No. Not at all," Tony said. "Thank you for not making a smart decision."

"Every time when it comes to you," Pepper said, kissing him.


End file.
